Am army barrack was reported to be destroyed and over a hundred Royal Nepal Army (RNA) personnel kidnapped by Maoists from the Tandi area of Kalikot district in west Nepal last night.Around 30 military personnel who were ‘‘out of contact’’ with military headquarters are back in touch, but they have not yet been rescued to full safety, a source at Army headquarters said. Maoists launched a surprise attack on a construction unit along the Surkhet-Jumla highway at around 5.30 p.m. yesterday and then attacked the barrack.Maoist western division commander Prabhakar claimed that 159 security personnel were ‘‘killed’’ and 50 ‘‘enemies’’ captured. He also admitted that at least 26 Maoist guerrillas were killed. If the claim is correct, this makes it the biggest setback for the Royal Nepal Army in recent times.But there was no independent verification of the loss to the RNA. Brigadier Deepak Gurung, spokesperson at the Army headquarters said, ‘‘At least one soldier and three others attained martyrdom’’, but dismissed the Maoist claims as ‘‘exaggerated and part of their routine propaganda’’.Sources say there were 127 military personnel in the unit with another 100 construction workers and porters. There are fears that the Maoists have also seized sophisticated rifles including SLRs and a huge cache of explosives for use in road construction work.Over 1,000 armed personnel including sharp-shooters from the US trained ‘Ranger’ elite groups have been dispatched to the spot, which is close to the Tibet border.
